Daniel Alter, MSc, MDT, CDT, Executive Editor of Inside Dental Technology, recently sat down with Tillmann Steinbrecher, the Founder and CEO of exocad, and Beth Collington, President of exocad America, to discuss exocad’s newest offerings and a glimpse of what the future holds for dental innovation and technology.
Daniel Alter, MSc, MDT, CDT: Can you please share with the readership what is new with the DentalCAD 3.2 Elefsina feature release? What new features and highlights can users expect to experience that weren't available in previous releases?
Tillman Steinbrecher: We are proud of the DentalCAD 3.2 Elefsina feature release that offers new and robust functionalities to our exocad community. The focus continues to be on faster workflows and improving the user experience. We now offer the possibility to choose between the classical wizard workflow that people love and know, and a shortened wizard workflow with increased automation. We also developed the new quick model generation, so when a designer finishes a case, the software can generate a printable model with just one click.
The most intriguing thing to me is the integration of cloud-based services. AI is a hot topic right now and a focus for us, and the new feature release can connect to cloud-based AI that leverages the power of scalable cloud computing for even more automation. At the same time, 3D editing continues to be done in the locally running software, ensuring snappy interactive work even on large cases.
Daniel Alter, MSc, MDT, CDT: Congratulations on the new exocad America headquarters and education center. What is your vision for the new space and what can we expect to see?
Beth Collington: We are extremely excited to be unveiling our new headquarters and exocad’s excellence center in Massachusetts, which opened on March 31, 2025. Our goal is to offer the exocad community the opportunity to utilize our space and experience our diverse educational programs. We want to support our customers to enhance their already successful restorative outcomes, and we want to give them the opportunity to learn new options. Customers can learn about exocad’s digital workflow solutions and the best utilization practices for using our wizard and expert modes in all segments of restorative and cosmetic dentistry. Technicians and clinicians can utilize these tools to design and create the most successful outcomes.
Daniel Alter, MSc, MDT, CDT: What are exocad's current AI features and what can customers expect coming from exocad that is new?
Tillmann: On April 1, we launched two exciting AI-based services for automated design and visualization, and we invite users who have the latest DentalCAD software to try them out. For single crowns, AI can now generate design suggestions for you in just about 2 minutes. For visualization, we’re now also offering our new TruSmile Video service. From within Smile Creator, you can upload a video of the patient, and the AI will apply your individual smile design to the video, creating a realistic before/after comparison. The quality of the results mesmerizes patients and dentists alike and can lead to increased case acceptance.
One guiding principle for us is that, even with AI, we believe that the user still needs to stay in control. This means two things: First, the AI can be set up in a way that it generates a result that is as close as possible to what you envision and desire. Second, you have access to all the powerful editing tools from exocad if you still desire to make further customizations or apply your signature style.
For us, AI is all about increasing productivity, while reducing design time and training time. Many labs and clinics have built their digital workflows and processes around exocad software, and, when we offer AI functionality, we want to make sure that existing workflows remain intact and exocad users do not need to develop new workflows or retrain their staff to leverage these remarkable technologies. We want to make sure that the barrier of entry for AI is as low as possible.
Daniel Alter, MSc, MDT, CDT: What is your vision for the future? If you had a crystal ball, where might we be 3 to 5 years from now?
Tillman: From my perspective, there are two key aspects—the first one being automation. How do we reduce design time? And how do we help labs use digital technologies to leverage AI to be more productive? Another key aspect is interdisciplinary collaborations, especially for smile makeovers. You can get a better result if you have a more holistic view of the case. Is this an orthodontic case or is this a restorative case? If you combine orthodontics with restorative treatments cleverly, then it can lead to less invasive treatments, where you can save tooth mass for the patient, and you can get an enhanced esthetic and functional result. This is minimally invasive and brings together various aspects of the whole digital dentistry realm. Our mission is to provide easy-to-use tools that bring together restorative dentistry, orthodontics, and implantology, to optimally combine these technologies. That is something that will be highly significant in the future.
Beth: I see exocad setting an exceedingly high bar in the industry. We are innovators in creating faster, more accurate options for restorative dentistry design functionality, and exocad’s solutions are front and center. Our customers are committed to growing with us, and we are grateful for the amazing community behind our ecosystem of resources. exocad will continue to develop new solutions to support our community drawing from the know-how and abilities of our talented team of developers. The dental industry really needs the reliability that exocad brings. We continue to strive for excellence, while developing new services to directly support the dental community.
AI is going to be a game-changer. I think people will look at exocad as their resource to support their designs, integrations and workflows. exocad has already enhanced the customer experience and will continue to innovate in the future.
Tillman: A highlight for us every 2 years is the International Dental Show (IDS) in Cologne, Germany. At the show, we highlighted exciting new developments, and, most importantly, engaged and spoke with our users. Stay tuned for even more exciting developments as we continue to progress our technology for the benefit of our exocad community and their patients.
